Adjustable earmuffs

ABSTRACT

An ear protecting headgear having means for adjusting the pressure of an earmuff seal against the head of a wearer useful in high noise environments. In a headgear such as a helmet the apparatus includes a pair of cords connected at their respective one ends to a pair of resilient supports containing earmuffs, and at their other ends to a single take-up device mounted on the helmet. Manual manipulation of the take-up device selectively and simultaneously shortens the extensible length of both cords moving both earmuffs inwardly toward a wearer&#39;&#39;s ears, adjusting the earmuff seal pressure against the wearer&#39;&#39;s head and effectuating varying degrees of ambient sound attenuation.

United States Patent 1 Desimone i 1 ADJUSTABLE EARMUFFS [75] Inventor:David N. Desimone, Philadelphia,

[73] Assignee: The United States of America as represented by theSecretary of the Navy, Washington. DC.

22 Filed: Dec. 18, 1972 211 App]. No.: 315,967

[52] [1.8. CI 2/6, 2/209, 179/156 [51] Int. Cl A42b 3/00 [58] Field ofSearch 2/6, 209; 179/156 is [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS2,075,196 3/1937 Hand 179/156 3,148,376 9/1964 Aileo 2/6 3,430,2613/1969 Benner.. 179/156 3,795,919 3/1974 Aho .1 2/6 FOREIGN PATENTS ORAPPLICATIONS 1,005,187 9/1965 Great Britain 2/6 Feb. 11, 1975 PrimaryExaminer-Jordan Franklin Assistant Examiner-Peter Nerbun Attorney,Agent, or Firm-R. S. Sciascia; Henry Hansen [57] ABSTRACT An earprotecting headgear having means for adjusting the pressure of anearmuff seal against the head of a wearer useful in high noiseenvironments. In a headgear such as a helmet the apparatus includes apair of cords connected at their respective one ends to a pair ofresilient supports containing earmuffs, and at their other ends to asingle take-up device mounted on the helmet. Manual manipulation of thetake-up device selectively and simultaneously shortens the extensiblelength of both cords moving both earmuffs inwardly toward a wearersears, adjusting the earmuff seal .pressure against the wearers head andeffectuating varying degrees of ambient sound attenuation.

2 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTED FEB! H975 sum 1 or 2' PATENTED 3,864.756

sum 0F 2 1 ADJUSTABLE EARMUFFS STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTEREST Theinvention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for theGovernment of the United States of America for governmental purposeswithout the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to thefield of headgear and more particularly to improved head coveringscontaining earmuff pressure adjustment apparatus.

Personnel working in high ambient noise environments, such as inmilitary aircraft, must be protected from possible damage to their ears.They must also gen erally maintain sound communication with each otherand with a remote radio communicator. Typical devices found in the priorart provide some form of adjustable sound attenuation, includingremovable earmuff attachments for safety helmets and enclosed soundattenuators for various types of aviatorss headgear. Among the problemsencountered in the various prior art devices is the inability to simplyand quickly adjust earmuff seal pressure against the side of the wearershead by a single quick manipulation. Selective adjustment of earmuffseal pressure is generally accomplished by individual adjustment at eachearmuff.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly. it is a general purpose and objectof the present invention to provide simple, inexpensive, lightweight,efficient, fast, simultaneous selective means for adjusting earmuff sealpressure against a wearers head.

These and other objects are accomplished according to the presentinvention by a cord adjustment system mounted in a helmet connected to atake-up reel ad justable from outside of the helmet by the rotation of asingle member. Two individual cords attached at their one ends to thetake-up reel and at their other ends to respective earmuff mountingsupports containing the individual earmuffs are shortened by rotatingthe outside reel adjustment member producing an inward force and urgingthe cantilevered spring supports in a laterally inwardly directiontoward the wearers ears effecting a tight seal against the side of thehead. The reel maintains the selected tension on the respective cords,thus maintaining constant pressure of the earmuffs against the wearershead. Disengagement ofthe carmuffs is accomplished by rotating the reeladjustment member in the opposite direction lengthening the respectivecords and removing the inward force on the supports which are biasedoutwardly away from the wearer's cars by the spring supports.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of asafety helmet with ear protecting muffs and supporting structureaccording to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 22 of FIG. 1 with theearmuffs and supporting structure shown in front elevation;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the earmuffsupporting structure of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic developed view of an earmuff adjusting cordsystem constructed according to the invention showing two positions ofthe earmuff and supporting structure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIGS. l5,inclusive, a safety helmet 11 is shown comprising a hard protectiveouter shell 12, such as constructed of hard plastic or a similarmaterial. and an insert 13 epoxied thereto to provide the wearer safetyfrom sudden shock or impact forces. Insert 13 can be made of any impactabsorbing material such as rubber, foam. composition material or thelike. A pair of foam rubber inserts 31 are epoxied to shell 12 toprotect the wearers temples. Attached to helmet 11 is a visor guard 14containing slidable eye protective visors not shown. A pair of earmuffsupport structures 15 are each similarly attached to opposite sides ofshell 12 by an appropriate fastener 16, such as a self-locking nut andbolt arrangement. As shown more clearly in FIG. 4, support structure 15comprises a first arcuate cantilever spring bracket 17 having a hollow,cylindrical ferrule 18 attached transverse to the longitudinal axis ofbracket 17 near its distal end. A second arcuate bracket 19 is fastenedto bracket 17 by a fastener 20, such as a self-locking nut and bolt,with an arcuate spacer 21 of a nonconducting material sandwiched betweenbrackets 17 and 19 for providing complete electrical isolationtherebetween. A gimbal 22 is attached to bracket 19 by a fastener 23,such as a self-locking nut and bolt, and depends therefrom pivotallycontaining an earmuff 24. Mounted within earmuff 24 is a speaker 32 forproviding the wearer with sound communication from a remote source, suchas by radio communication. A take-up reel 25, utilizing internalfriction to maintain a rotational position is mounted on the inside ofshell 12 by appropriate fasteners such as screws 26. A reel adjustmentmember 27 disposed on the outside of helmet 11 is connected by a commonshaft to reel 25, and can be easily rotated by the wearer to wind a pairof cords 28 and 29 around a drum within reel 25 not shown. Cords 28 and29 may alternatively be comprised of cable, string, wire or the like andshould be capable of some degree of stretch. Cord 28 is routed through aplurality of guide rings 30 to the right earmuff support structure, andcord 29 is similarly routed through guide rings 30 to the left earmuffsupport structure, as is more clearly shown in FIG. 5. Cords 28 and 29are routed around respective brackets 17 through ferrules 18 and aresecured in any convenient manner to form a fixed loop therearound.

In operation the wearer can select the desired amount of earmuff sealpressure against the side of his head by rotating adjustment member 27on the outside of his helmet until a comfortable fit is achieved.Rotation of member 27 in either direction from a neutral position causesinternal rotation of a shaft in reel 25 (not shown) having the one endsof cords 28 and 29 secured thereto and resulting in a shortening oftheir extensible lengths. Shortening of cords 28 and 29 causes them toexert an inward force on respective brackets 17, pulling them inwardlyagainst the natural outward cantilever spring force of brackets 17 froma neutral position and causing earmuffs 24 to move inwardly as depictedin FIG. 5. In this manner, earmuff pressure can be selectively adjustedby the wearer to provide that degree of comfort and sound attenuationnecessary in any noise environment encountered. Rotating adjustmentmember 27 in the opposite direction causes the shaft in reel (not shown)to rotate in the opposite direction unwinding cords 28 and 29 andincreasing their extensible length. Increasing the cord length removesthe inward force on respective brackets 17 allowing their naturaloutward spring force to return them to the neutral position and movingearmuffs 24 away from the wearers head. By the simple manipulation ofadjustment member 27 the wearer can intermittently select that amount ofpressure which is most comfortable and provides the desired amount ofsound attenuation. It should be pointed out that reel 25 used in thepresent embodiment of the invention is but a single means for increasingor decreasing the lengths of cords 28 and 29. Any suitable take-updevice could be substituted for reel 25 without departing from the scopeand spirit of the present invention.

It should be noted that the sound attenuation system described hereinneed not be mounted to a hard helmet as shown in the accompanyingdrawings. The system as described herein can be constructed independentof a helmet hard shell by suspending the earmuffs from a mounting devicesuch as an appropriate strap fitting over the head on which reel 25,reel adjustment member 27 and guide rings 30 are also mounted. Operationof the system would take place in the same manner as describedhereinbefore.

Some of the many advantages of the present invention should now bereadily apparent. The wearer can vary the amount of sound attenuation toobtain a greater degree of earmuff effectiveness at such critical timesas communicating in an aircraft during landing, takeoff, combat andemergency procedures. Earmuffs can be flown loose when not in use andeasily tightened by a single manipulation of the accessible adjustmentmember when needed. Additional benefits of the present invention includeits light weight, relatively low cost to make, high efficiency andsimple earmuff seal design for most applications.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention arepossible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to beunderstood that within the scope of the appended claims the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

l. Headgear comprising, in combination;

a helmet;

a pair of ear covers formed to encompass the cars;

a pair of resilient support means mounted on said helmet each containingone of said ear covers forjuxtapositioning said ear covers adjacent torespective ones of the ears; and

adjustment means for simultaneously pulling said ear covers toward theears including take-up means operatively mounted on said helmet, guidemeans fixed to the inside of said helmet between said takeup means andsaid support means, and a pair of cords threaded through said guidemeans fixed at their respective one ends to said take-up means andextending laterally outward from said helmet, fixedly terminating attheir respective other ends at respective ones of said support means.

2. Headgear as set forth in claim 1, further comprising: said take-upmeans being disposed on the inside of said helmet and having a memberdisposed on the outside of said helmet communicating therewith forwinding said cord on said take-up means.

1. Headgear comprising, in combination; a helmet; a pair of ear coversformed to encompass the ears; a pair of resilient support means mountedon said helmet each containing one of said ear covers forjuxtapositioning said ear covers adjacent to respective ones of theears; and adjustment means for simultaneously pulling said ear coverstoward the ears including take-up means operatively mounted on saidhelmet, guide means fixed to the inside of said helmet between saidtake-up means and said support means, and a pair of cords threadedthrough said guide means fixed at their respective one ends to saidtake-up means and extending laterally outward from said helmet, fixedlyterminating at their respective other ends at respective ones of saidsupport means.
 2. Headgear as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:said take-up means being disposed on the inside of said helmet andhaving a member disposed on the outside of said helmet communicatingtherewith for winding said cord on said take-up means.